﻿102 Canadian Record of Science. 



$15 per thousand for acetylene gas where they pay $1.50 

 for 16-candle water gas or coal gas. 



I should expect to see it first introduced to replace the 

 very expensive oil gas used in railroad carriages, and also 

 for special purposes where great brilliancy and concen- 

 tration are required, like the headlights of locomotives. 

 For such purposes the Welsbach light cannot be used, 

 because it is destroyed by jarring. The adherence of the 

 flame to the burner is an advantage for railroad use, 

 making the flame hard to blow out. For shop-window 

 illumination the Welsbach light, which is very much 

 cheaper than gas burnt in any other way, seems to be 

 beyond the reach of competition ; and the Auer burner, 

 which is similar, is now used for street lighting in Paris, 

 and these incandescent lights work well wherever the 

 light is not shaken, and where the disagreeable green 

 tint is not an objection. 



For country houses acetylene light seems well fitted 

 and might replace the very bad illumination of gasolene 

 light. 



Mucli skill and special knowledge are required to run 

 gas works, while the making of acetylene from the car- 

 bide or its distribution as a liquid is so simple that acety- 

 lene stations could be established in many villages too 

 small to make gas works pay. Moreover the winter con- 

 sunaption of gas is two or three times that of the summer, 

 when the gas plant lies idle in part. With acetylene 

 there is an advantage in this direction, because the value 

 of the plant would be much less. 



The whiteness of acetylene light renders it useful for 

 displaying or sorting colours, and some experiments made 

 with Mr. C. R Walker show that, for photographic pur- 

 poses, when equal quantities of acetylene light and of 

 water-gas light, measured by candle-power, are compared, 

 the acetylene light has two and one-lialf the actinic value 

 of the other. 



